CPA Executive Committee's new chairperson elected in Cameroon

Tue, 14 Oct 2014 Source: UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office

The Rt. Hon. Shirin-Sharmin-Chowdhurry got the majority vote in a general elections that took place in Yaounde on the 9th of October.

The General Assembly meeting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association-CPA that took place on the 9th of October at the Yaounde Conference Centre had as main objective the election of a new Chair person of the CPA as well as the elections of a new executive commitee.

The meeting which took place behind closed resulted in the election of the Rt.Hon. Shirin-Sharmin-Chowdhurryas the new Chair of the CPA's Executive Committee.

The Rt.Hon. Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury has become the first Bangladeshi to be elected as the chairperson of the executive committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association that promotes parliamentary democracy in the Commonwealth.

Rt. Hon. Shirin-Sharmin-Chowdhurry who is the current and the first woman Speaker of Jatiyo Sangshad- the Bangladesh Parliament, since April 2013, was elected the chairperson of the 35-member executive committee, defeating the lone candidate from Cayman Islands Julianna O'Connor-Connolly, the speaker of the British-ruled small state, by 70 votes to 67.

She will be replacing the Rt. Hon. Sir Alan Haselhurst,MP, a member of the United Kingdom's House of Commons who was elected as the Chairperson of the CPA Executive Committee in a General Assembly held in London on the 27th of July duirng the 57th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference.

Rt. Hon. Shirin-Sharmin-Chowdhurry will hold the post of CPA Executive Committee Chairperson for next three years.

Source: UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office